A communication system comprises a transmitter and a receiver coupled by a broadcast channel. The broadcast channel may distort the transmitted signal due to factors such as noise, multi-path fading, and environmental changes. The extent to which the broadcast channel may distort the transmitted signal may be determined by processing the received signal at the receiver. The received signal may be used to estimate the characteristics of the channel. The estimated characteristics of the channel may be used to recover the transmitted signal at the receiving end. In a digital television (DTV) system employing Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) standard, the channel estimation may be performed using the field synchronization (field sync) portion embedded in the ATSC signal. However, the field sync portion may not provide enough information for accurate estimate of the characteristics of the channel, especially when the broadcast channel spans over several hundred symbols.